Both men saved innocent human lives during the Second World War. Bernadotte was tasked with arranging exchanges of Allied and Axis military prisoners.. He also secured the release of civilians from German concentration camps, saving their lives. Hundreds of Jews were amongst those saved. As a humanitarian and a human being his name deserves remembrance. […]
November, 2019
CAPTAIN ALFRED DREYFUS AND COLONEL ANDRE SEROT – TWO ILL-USED FRENCH OFFICERS by Donal Kennedy
I’ve mentioned both men in a previous blog and I may even be the only person who has yet mentioned both men in a single feature or a single sentence. Captain Dreyfus: Hundreds of acres , perhaps thousands of square miles of newsprint were devoted to him during his lifetime. Most of it scurrilous, false […]
On the implementation of the GFA by Colin Harvey
Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement Opening statement by Professor Colin Harvey, School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast 7th November 2019 Introduction Thank you to the Chair and Committee members for the invitation to address you today. The focus of this opening statement is on the questions that have arisen, in […]
Jamie Bryson and the threat of Orange terrorism by Donal Lavery
“You claim to be a majority, well you know that’s a lie. You really are a minority on this sweet Emerald Isle.” – Lyrics of a song by the great John Lennon Recently, at a packed meeting in Portadown where a DUP MLA was present, alongside the arch-Loyalist and provocateur Jamie Bryson, who made serious […]
Andrew, Boris and Jeremy
Isn’t it odd? Early last week Prince Andrew was interviewed on telly. The result was as near to a train-wreck as most of us want to get. Andrew’s view of his paeodophilic friend Jeffrey Eptstein was that he had engaged in behaviour unbecoming. He claimed that he’d never met the young aged seventeen who claimed […]
THE SUNDAY TIMES (LONDON) ALLEGES BRITISH FORCES’ ATROCITIES IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ AND CONDEMNS THEIR COVER UP BY SENIOR OFFICERS AND GOVERNMENT MINISTERS by Donal Kennedy
The British edition of the Sunday Times (17 November 2019) devotes two Broadsheet pages plus much of its front page plus an Editorial. which, if true, should bury the forces concerned, their political directors and media abettors in infamy. In the 1940s some Nazis and their collaborators, guilty of similar crimes were, deservedly, hanged, albeit […]
Anna Lo and the Alliance Perfection
OK, hands up if you remember Anna Lo? It’s not that long ago – in 2014, to be exact – when she shot into the headlines. In the course of an interview with that Venerable Organ The Irish News, she declared that she was “anti-colonial” and that the partition of Ireland was “artificial”. What’s more, […]
Taking a pop at the poppy
There’s a man writing in the Letters column of the Irish Times this morning, lamenting that the IT’s columnist Miriam Lord has poked fun at the number of people in Britain who wear poppies. The letter man points to the Enniskillen bombing, and remembers how “Senator John Robb wore a poppy in the senate and […]
“I am not now,and never have been, a member of …….” (Part 1) by Donal Kennedy
Once upon a time, in “The Home of The Brave and the Land of The Free” its citizens might be hauled before a Senate Committee and required (in contravention of that Republic’s Bill of Rights) to divulge their current anf former political beliefs and affiliations and those of their friends and associates. Prominent amongst the […]
Uniting the Island? Brexit and Constitutional Futures by Prof Colin Harvey
Below is the transcript of a speech given by Professor Colin Harvey at the recent Franco-British Lawyers Society Colloquium in Belfast entitled ‘Navigating Brexit – Icebergs Ahead? UK, Irish, French and EU Perspectives.’ 15 November 2019 COMMENTSPRINT Bonjour tout le monde Thank you for the invitation. I feel honoured, privileged and out of place – […]